The food I cook...

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah!( May Peace and Blessings be upon you)
Welcome to my Culinary Blog! Here you will find recipes of the food I cook everyday. I tend to cook primarily Indian food and also dare to try to cook from various cuisines to add a variation to the food we eat:)

I have been away for longer than I expected from my blog. I have been cooking, baking, taking pictures and all that stuff but just did not post the recipes. I thank all the readers who have been commenting on the older recipes and also my friends and relatives who have been trying my recipes and enjoying them.

One winter afternoon, I was invited over for a quick brunch by my best friend. The company and food were both amazing. Time just flew amidst all the conversations and laughter and and we quickly went back to our daily activities, looking forward to meeting again. One thing I really enjoyed among many other things she served was the bread she baked, that was very moist, very dense and soft on the inside and slightly crusty on the outside. It tasted great with a good slathering of butter. It looked like she had worked hard for hours to bake it. I was surprised when she told me she didn't even knead it and it was very easy to bake. A few days later I gave it a try and it disappeared while we were tasting it before we could sit at the table to eat.

There is no better aroma than that of freshly baking bread wafting out of the oven, making the kitchen smell like a bakery. If you always wanted to bake your own bread at home but were too intimidated with the whole process of making one, you must try this recipe. You cannot ask for an easier one. It takes only a few moments of mixing, about less than an hour to rise and about 30 minutes for baking. Read on ...

You wanna cook like a pro and don't want to work too hard? You are not confident of the results yet have to make the table shine? Well then, this is the recipe you need in shaa Allah. This is a very succulent and flavorful chicken with a crispy crust that can be made in a pan and does not require an oven. Ingredients:

Pancakes are flat round cakes, cooked on a griddle and in North America served as a breakfast food. In the past have tried making them with the store-bought boxed mixes, at home from scratch, tried the gluten-free recipes. Nothing tasted like these ones that I made today for breakfast. Like many other recipes I have tried from myninjanaan's space, this one was a hit at home. They turned out fluffy, melt-in-the mouth and fabulous. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thank you Henna!

As of the first week of March 2015, for the records in the past ten days we have had only 6 hours of sunshine and in between record- breaking ice rains, snowfalls and everything in between. We have had similar weather patterns in Dallas in the past during December-January time frame. Not in March! I am by no means comparing the weather with the folks that have to put up with incessant snowfalls for the whole of winter. But yeah, the weather in Dallas has been pretty uncertain.

My Mom was very well known among her family and friends for her lemon pickle. When I was younger, all I did was helped her to wipe the lemons dry as it was made in stages. Mom took utmost care to choose the best lemons, washed them well, dried them well and made sure there was not a drop of moisture present at any stage. Then when all the spices were added, it was put into tall ceramic pickle jars tightly secured with a cloth, tied with a string and then the lid placed over the cloth It was put away in a dark corner and mixed every couple days until the juice softened the flesh. After the pickle reached the right stage to be tempered, it was tempered and stored at room temperature for months.

For over a decade, Mom has made and sent her lemon pickle every time I have asked for it. Now, I have come up with my version for an instant pickle that allows me to skip all those stages of patient waiting and is so convenient that it can be made in less than an hour. The pickle has just the right amount of tang, is super saucy and tastes fantastic and can be used in so many ways. However, it has to be stored in the refrigerator. I have even shared this recipe with my Mom and she has made it and was very proud of me:)

Have you been reading "raw", "vegan", "dairy free" and "super foods", a lot lately? This recipe has all of it. It is definitely very healthy as it is sugar-free and I have also sneaked in a gorgeous vegetable., the beets. And if you are a person who enjoys sweet things for breakfast, this recipe is for you. And what's even more cool is you can actually make a big batch of it ahead of time and refrigerate it and eat it for breakfast or even dessert for the next couple days.

For those who are not aware of what chia seeds are, they are these tiny speckled seeds that are the cousins of the basil seeds used in making the poular ice-cream drink, falooda. They both swell up when soaked in a liquid and become gelatinous. They are very high in fiber, full of protein, are a great source of calcium....the list goes on. This recipe is just a basic one. The additions you can make to it are endless. Read on and figure out....

Kheer is a milk based dessert that is extremely delicious and can be a little tricky to make it taste great. It has to be silky smooth in texture, subtly fragrant and sweet. It is made with a lot of variations. It could be made with sago pearls, rice, vermicelli, corn starch etc. Today, I shall share with you my perfected version of the kheer which turns out just right, everytime.

1. Put the vermicelli into a saute pan and dry roast them while stirring constantly until it changes color to a golden brown and set aside and allow it to cool.

2. In a heavy bottomed pot, add the milk along with the vermicelli and bring it to a boil on high heat.

3. Reduce the heat to a medium and place a lid just half way and allow it to simmer gently for 30 minutes and keep checking on the milk and stirring to make sure the milk is not burning at the bottom of the pot.

These tuna cutlets are a perfect choice to go with some plain white rice and some some tangy lentil soup on a grey winter afternoon. When served to guests over a dinner party, these would get a lot of attention, as they look cute and taste delicious. Increase the spice level or or decrease it, add an ingredient in a bigger quantity or skip any completely. However you choose to make it, you will love to make it over and over again.

This is a recipe for those days when you don't want to cook, yet have no other choice:) I have used canned sardines that are wild caught, in olive oil. They are soft, yet firm and do not disintegrate while cooking. When cooked in a thick tomato gravy, turns out finger-licking good. Read on and make sure you cook them soon if you already have some sardines around.

A very warm Welcome to the new readers here and a warmer one to the old ones:) I have been out of the loop for a while. I have missed reading posts on my favorite blogs. I have to say, staying away from blogging and dedicating my time to other important things in life has renewed my interestt in blogging. I think a break from the routine does a lot of good to you.

Lately, it has been unusually cold in Dallas. For a couple more days the temperature is going to linger around the teens or lower 20's. I wouldn't mind if it was accompanied with some snow. The cold temperatures have made me prefer the indoors and cook up something warm and hot. I decided to cook some Taro chips. Not deep fried but pan fried:)

Taro, which is also called arbi in Urdu or Hindi, is a starchy root vegetable with a lot of health benefits. It can be cooked in many ways, with meat or without meat, dry or in a gravy. This version of arbi fry is my favorite to be served piping hot on an extremely cold winter afternoon. It could be served as a snack or as a side dish with any regular meal. It is super crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. With very few ingredients, read on and see how you can cook your taro chips next time:)Ingredients:

1. In a wide tray, place the boiled taro chips and rub the ginger-garlic paste on them and sprinkle salt, flipping them over to make sure all the discs have been coated with salt and ginger-garlic paste evenly.

Baklava is a delicate "middle eastern" dessert that consists of thin and crispy layers of baked phyllo dough (can be bought from any grocery store from the freezer section) that has been baked with lots of butter between each layer and a nut mixture in the middle and topped with more layers of the phyllo dough. Once it comes out of the oven, it is quickly doused with sugar syrup and allowed to cool before serving.

I was like most of you, who would just marvel at this tiny piece of store-bought dessert, carefully biting into the flakey layers and thought it was too complicated to even attempt making at home. However, a few minutes after I ate it, it made me feel it was overly sweet and had loads of butter and most of all, tasted stale. Inspite of all that, I still looked forward to eating it.

Once I decided to make it by myself at home, I was amazed by how easy it was to assemble it and bake it while controlling the portions of butter and sugar that went into making it. And talk about it's freshness, it tasted like something I never tasted before. I promise you, you will never like to eat store bought baklava once you make it yourself. If I can make it, anybody can. Period. Please do yourself a favor. Follow my recipe and make yourself some baklava and amaze yourselves, your family and friends and post your comments below this post and let me know how wonderful your baklava tasted in shaa Allah.

1. Bring to a boil, one cup of water in a sauce pan along with a cup of sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour the lemon juice and turn off the stove. Add the rose water and turn off the stove and set aside.

2. Pour two tablespoons of the sugar syrup and two tablespoons of butter over the ground nuts and mix well and set aside.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Grease a 9inch by 13 inch glass baking dish.

5. Cut open the bag of phyllo dough and place it on a working surface.

6. Cut the stack of phyllo sheets in half along it's width.

7. Place two layers of the sheets into the baking sheet at a time and apply butter generously all over the sheet.

8. Repeat the process until you are done with one stack of the cut sheets.

9. Spread the nut mixture evenly all over the phyllo sheet.

10. Repeat the layering of sheets with strokes of liquid butter until all the sheets are done.

11. Apply one last round of butter on the top sheet.

12. Use a spatula or a butter knife and tuck in the edes of the phyllo sheets agaings the walls of the baking dish.

13. Use a sharp pairing knife and gently cut the assembled sheets into shapes of your choice.

14. Put the baking dish into the pre-heated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.

15. Turn off the oven and pull out the baking dish and place it on the kitchen counter and pour the sugar syrup into the creases of freshly baked baklava and not on the top. That way the top remains crispy and the nut mixture and the bottom layers abrorb the liquid.

16. Leave it to cool completely and serve.

17. Enjoy

Notes:
1. You may use vegetable oil or even coconut oil in place of butter.

2. reduce or increase the amount of sugar as per your taste.

3. While assembling the layers of phyllo, work quickly as it tends to dry up and break.

4. If you think your sheets are less moist and tend to break easily, you might want to cover the unused sheets of the dough with a damp cloth.

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About Me

A dedicated wife and mom, who cooks healthy food for family and friends and also intends to save recipes for my kids when they are adults and cant figure out how to and what to cook :)
You are welcome to view my recipes and try them out.
It's also important for me to know your feedback. Go ahead and leave your valuable comments and let me know what you think, insha Allah! Email me @ famcook123@gmail.com